Two pearl millet varieties with 7.0% and 5.4% higher green forage yields as compared to national check Giant Bajra, were released for cultivation in five south India states. These have significantly higher dry fodder yield and superior/or at par forage quality compared to checks. The release is significant given that India has a shortage of 284 million tons of green fodder and 122 million tons of dry fodder. This demand is likely to grow further and India would require 400 and 117 million tons of green and dry fodder, respectively, by 2025.

1. NewsletterHappenings
In-house version 28 August 2020, No.1869
Two pearl millet varieties with 7.0% and 5.4% higher
green forage yields as compared to national check
Giant Bajra, were released for cultivation in five south
India states. These have significantly higher dry fodder
yield and superior/or at par forage quality compared to
checks. The release is significant given that India has a
shortage of 284 million tons of green fodder and 122
million tons of dry fodder. This demand is likely to grow
further and India would require 400 and 117 million tons
of green and dry fodder, respectively, by 2025*.
Farmers in the states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry can now cultivate
these high-forage pearl millet cultivars to ensure feed
security of their livestock. These varieties are also
resistant to leaf spot and blight diseases.
Driven by feedback from partners that lack of sufficient
fodder is the major constraint to livestock production in
smaller farming communities in the arid and semi-arid
regions of India, the ICRISAT pearl millet team worked
on the development of promising multi-cut forage
varieties in association with Professor Jayashankar
Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU),
Hyderabad. This resulted in the release and notification
in 2020 of two forage pearl millet varieties – TSFB 15-4
and TSFB 15-8. The two varieties can be cultivated as
rainfed crops in the rainy season and as irrigated dry
crops during summer.
The varieties were developed through recurrent
selection breeding methodology in association with
Dr T Shashikala, Forage Breeder from PJTSAU.
Dr SK Gupta, Pearl Millet Breeder at ICRISAT, informed
that based on three-year (2016-2018) multilocation
evaluations in the south zone, TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8
were released for their superior performance over
national and zonal checks.
Innovation
Rising fodder shortage prompts release of two pearl millet
varieties with superior and higher forage in south India
Forage variety pearl millet on the research field (left) and farmer’s field (right).
Photos: ICRISAT
Performance of TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8 compared to
national and zonal checks
Characteristic
TSFB
15-4
TSFB
15-8
National
check
(Giant Bajra)
Zonal
check
(Moti Bajra)
Green forage
yield (tons/ha)
42.67 42.02 39.87 39.80
Dry fodder
yield (tons/ha)
8.47 8.60 7.76 8.02
Crude protein
(%)
9.8 10.1 9.7 9.0
In vitro dry
matter
digestibility
(IVDMD) (%)
56.5 57.7 56.8 NA
*Demand and Supply Projections Towards 2033, NITI
Aayog 2018
Projects: Improved Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents for
Increased and Stable Production; Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR)-ICRISAT Pearl millet
collaborative project (2019-2023)
Funder: Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortium
(PMHPRC) and ICAR, Government of India
Partners: Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute,
Jhansi; PJTSAU, Hyderabad and ICRISAT
CRP: Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC)
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